Ahoy - Mac's Web Log

Dear Sir,
 
Do you have a list of German Survivors from the Kormoron. I once met a man by the name of Eric Falk, I would like to know if He was a survivor and what his task was in the Kormoron.
 
Kind regards, John Howe.

John,
 
With an Internet search I turned up this piece, which may answer your question.
 
Apparently the only material evidence of the loss of Sydney is an Australian navy-type Carley lifefloat which, damaged by gunfire and containing two Australian naval lifebelts, was recovered by HMAS Heros on 27 November 1941 - eight days after the action - in a position approximately 160 miles northwest of Carnarvon. This lifefloat is preserved in the Australian War Memorial at Canberra. On 13 November 1993 an article in the Sydney Morning Herald stated:

Mr Eric Falk was a 21-year-old naval engineer, below deck in the Kormoran's engine room, when the Sydney was hit.

"I went up on deck," he says. "I saw the Sydney floating away, on fire. It was tragic, but war is a tragedy.

"There were only two options: we would go down or they would go down. In theory, they would master us with speed and power."

Mr Falk says the Kormoran crew always respected the Sydney, partly because the first HMAS Sydney had wrecked the Emden, the highly successful German light cruiser, in 1914.

Mr Falk was among the 318 German survivors. He spent five years as a prisoner of war, returned to Germany in 1947, married and came to live in Australia in 1951.

Now a retired engineer living at Blaxland, he has two sons, a police sergeant and a schoolteacher.

Mr Falk recalls with pleasure being met by his POW camp commander when he returned to Australia. He took to joining his Australian workmates for beers after work. He never volunteered much about his part in the war but he answered questions honestly. He said he was never made to feel uncomfortable.

Hope that helps.
 
Mac.